Yuppy Love/Danger UXD/Chain Gang
The first three episodes of the best season, Season 6, and the first episodes that went from being only 30 minutes to 50, allowing John Sullivan to stretch out the characters and give them depth with more dramatic scenes. Yuppy Love has what's generally considered to be the funniest BBC scene of all time, and it’s also the episode in which Rodney meets Cassandra. A kind of overlooked great moment is the scene with Del Boy explaining to Rodney to never be ashamed of where he comes from. Danger UXD is maybe the most brilliant premise of the whole series (Del buys a load of inflatable sex dolls that turn out to have propane in them), and is brilliantly played out by Del/Rodney/Uncle Albert. There’s not actually a ton going on before the big reveal, but it’s still so great you don’t mind. And I love Chain Gang because while it features a ton of great lines as does a usual episode, it’s the first time we really get to see all the main and secondary characters together in scenes; maybe the only time until the next season’s great Class of 62.
Heroes and Villains/Modern Men/Time On Our Hands
Coming 3 years after the most recent Christmas episode, Fatal Extraction, this was the incredible triumvirate that Sullivan planned on being the end to the show, culminating with the Trotters finally becoming the millionaires Del had always told them they’d be. And while all three are hysterical, particularly the iconic Batman & Robin scene (the subsequent scene of them showing up at the fancy dress party only to realize it's now a wake is, to me, actually funnier but I can't find a clip of it) and Rodney unwittingly calling in to apply for his own job (sorry no clip grrrr), what’s most remembered are the dramatic scenes – Del Boy talking to Rodney after Cassandra’s miscarriage (which incredibly ended with a top 5 comedy moment), Del Boy pretending the elevator was broken so he can finally get Rodney to talk about the miscarriage, and the three Trotters saying goodbye to their flat for the final time (but not before a tear-jerker of a scene when they get a standing ovation at the Nag's Head after becoming millionaires, in which John Sullivan was an extra because he thought it'd be the end of the series). OF COURSE it only takes them a coupla years to lose all their money and hafta slink back to Nelson Mandela House, all because of so much public outrage over the show ending and Sullivan agreeing to write three more specials. While I agree that the FINAL FINAL! three specials aren’t up to snuff as the Heroes and Villains/Modern Men/Time On Our Hands run, and the whole thing should’ve ended with the first ending, I’m more than happy to get 3+ more hours of the show any way I can.
Homesick/Healthy Competition/Friday the 14th
The only run of 30-minutes episodes on this list, these three opened season 3 with a bang. Homesick featured classic Del manipulating Rodney while showcasing how much he cares for Grandad, Healthy Competition has one of my favorite scenes, when Rodney and the finally-seen-on-screen Mickey Pearce are duped into buying broken lawnmower parts from, of course, Del, and features what is considered by the actors to be the biggest laugh of the whole run.
The line "What you got, Rodney? A Wendy House?" got an enormous laugh from the audience. The laugh went on so long, it threatened to run into the next episode. David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst had to ride with it and try not to join in. Later, Jason said "That's it. I'm resigning. Nick Lyndhurst and myself have worked our socks off all evening for this show. Lennard Pearce hasn't said a bloody word - and then he just says "Wendy House" and he gets the biggest laugh I've ever heard in my life." After that, a new ratings system for laughter on the show was invented, based on its Wendy-ness. A decent laugh was a mini-Wendy. A good laugh was a sub-Wendy. An all-out Wendy or a full-blown Wendy was the best to hope for, like the Holy Grail. Jason admitted whenever a Wendy came, it was Pearce's line when he was on the show.Tho you hafta be British to get the joke at first. And Friday the 14th is just flat-out one of my favorite episodes of the whole series – just laugh out loud funny, and there’s a warmth to the cabin setting.
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